My lone venting comment

[valarltd]

I don't know why anyone is surprised.

For every LJ liberal with gay friends or a same-sex spouse, there are 3-9 real world folks who would just as happily see all the queers rounded up and shot like rabid dogs, or at least deported back where they came from and away from defiling Murrican soil.

For every pro-choice blogger, there is a real world person who blockades or bombs the clinics.

For every astute political commentator here, there are three knotheads shouting "My country, right or wrong! And we're Never Wrong. Go Back to France, you traitors!"

For every atheist, agnostic, or non-Christian, there are 4 Christians in this country. At least 2 of whom favor making it a theocracy.

For every Christian who recognizes that when the church dictates to the state, the state can also dictate to the church, there is another who thinks that's just dandy.


I had hoped for the best. I was pleasantly surprised that Kerry managed 48% of the vote. Not bad for a "placeholder candidate." He was, and we knew this back in March. Somewhere, he forgot that and started trying to win. Somewhere we forgot it and thought he might.

Everyone who is balking at that concession speech needs to think about why it was made, and the probable pressure from TPTB, the kingmakers of the parties (who are the same people for both parties), who said "Whoa, what's this? Take your fall nicely or you'll never work in politics again."

But this election has confirmed my worst observations about people.

"There are two things humans have never satisfied: their curiosity and their greed."
And there isn't much most people I know in real life are curious about.

For the religious right, and especially the women who are working so diligently to lose their own rights, I hope you enjoy the world you've wished on us.

Me, I curse you.

May your daughters die of draino douches trying to end pregnancies they are too frightened to tell you of.
May your sons contract AIDS from being whored out in the school showers by the president of the FCA.
May your wives leave you for other women.
May your husbands beat you and there be no place to flee.
May your jobs evaporate and the social safety net you've weakened not catch you.
May you lose health care on the day you are diagnosed with cancer.
And may your church turn its back on you for leading such an immoral life that these calamities befell you.

Comments

[hobsonphile.livejournal.com]

Adios. I no longer respect you. Consider yourself removed from my friends list.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

As it suits you. I felt I needed to say it.

[hobsonphile.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe tomorrow, you'll read it over and regret it. Such unsupported, hateful rage does not become you.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I doubt it.

The rage has been building for 30+ years. From the first time I was told my imagination was wicked, because the Bible never uses the two words seperately.

I am a recovering fundamentalist. I know exactly what they believe and have done no more than wish the fruits of those beliefs back on their heads.

What I am ashamed of, and do regret, is the 20 years I spent trying to conform to their beliefs in hopes of passing for "a good person."

[hobsonphile.livejournal.com]

Sorry, you get no sympathy from me. I know Christians now. Many of them. They are good people. They are not bombing abortion clinics, nor beating gays, nor agitating for Christianity to be declared the national religion. Not even a majority of Christians are. They have beliefs that are in some instances opposed to mine, but for most, those beliefs are not held out of malice. What's more, they are doing good things for their surrounding communities. Several years ago, I volunteered at an inner city charity clinic run by a Christian Church.

It seems in throwing out the baby with the bath water, you've brought yourself no closer to the goal of being "a good person." "A good person" does not wish ill upon others, nor project their own personal issues on people he or she doesn't know.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I don't think I asked about sympathy.

I know a great number of Christians. Most are, at heart, good people. Most try to do good things and help others. Even the fundamentalists.

The problem is, the fundamentalists have NO curiosity, and do not value thought. The Bible solved everything, and it's been set in stone for 400 years. The beliefs are not held out of malice but out of clinginess. Change is hard and thought hurts.

They aren't beating gays, for the most part. They just want us to shut up, and go away. And you can't tell me a majority doesn't think that way when my state went 3 to 1 against same-sex marriage.

They aren't bombing as much as they are blockading.
And if you think there is not a very large subset that wants us to be Christian Nation, you don't live in the South.

I gave up on being a good person a very long time ago.
I figured out that all I could ever do was pass for one. Even passing got to be too much trouble. I prefer to be a lukewarm, Laodocean Christian.

And I am, at base, only human. One post, of anger and scorn, that's it. I've done my best to be positive, upbeat and calm about the whole thing. And tomorrow, I will channel my anger into productivity.

But tonight, I'm just wallowing a little and psyching myself up to do something positive with all of this.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Practicing Anglican (Episcopalian in the USA) checking in here. There's a hell of a lot more to Christianity than gays and abortion. Feeding the hungry, healing the sick, having compassion on outsiders who were despised by the self-righteous community, Jesus was a liberal, damnit!

God gave us brains, with the expectation that we would use them. Unfortunately a lot of people who claim to be good Christians (and I know quite a few. My best friend from childhood was 'born again' at seventeen, and I know a lot of fundamentalists through her) are more interested in hatred and condemning the behaviour of others than in loving their neighbours or *thinking* about their faith instead of blindly following what their pastor tells them.

[hobsonphile.livejournal.com]

But tonight, I'm just wallowing a little and psyching myself up to do something positive with all of this.

You do that.

There's a huge, screaming argument we can have about this, but I'd prefer not to have it. I will say, however, that it seems to me that you've traded one sort of fundamentalism for another entirely. And that will be my last word on the subject.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Thank you,

I nearly bite my tongue off reminding people that most liberal views are not the majority... we just congregate in the same places.

Also... changing social mores... not a quick thing.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Dang. Spelled that wrong.

Sorry.

[destina.livejournal.com]

You know, ranting about other adults, casting judgment on them...it's tacky, but I don't really give a damn about that, because it's adults you're ranting about. But I'm totally not okay with someone wishing a painful illness or death on other folks' children. If you're the kind of person who would truly wish other people's children dead, sick or injured because you disagree with their politics, then I'm horrified.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I want their policies to rebound on their own heads.

Adding the children into the curse is a fine old country tradition.
No harm will come to anyone because of my words.

And in the end, everyone is someone's child, even adults. If the daughters are old enough to get pregnant and the sons are old enough to be in FCA, they are not children but teetering on the brink of adulthood.

[destina.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying --

And in the end, everyone is someone's child, even adults. If the daughters are old enough to get pregnant and the sons are old enough to be in FCA, they are not children but teetering on the brink of adulthood.

-- is that you feel totally justified in saying what you've said here. The point isn't whether or not harm will actually come to anyone, the point is whether or not you wish harm would come to them. And clearly you do. This doesn't read like a charming old country curse, Angel. It reads like pure hate.

But whatever. I'm just up to *here* with the hatred I've seen on LJ today. Time to take a break.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I feel totally justified having a bloody tantrum in my own journal, yes.

It's not meant to be charming. It's meant to be hateful and dangerous because what it's talking about is hateful and dangerous.

[cimadness.livejournal.com]

This doesn't read like a charming old country curse, Angel. It reads like pure hate.
Most old country curses are pure hate, or at least closer to it than they are to charming.

[cimadness.livejournal.com]

The real issue is not so much adults/children as people who made the choice you're angry about/people who didn't.

Lone Rant

[(Anonymous)]

Your icon made me laugh. Role model? For what? And more importantly, who is this role model for? Your family, your friends? You spout such ugliness, such bitterness at the world. Can you not see what it is doing to you inside? Take control of YOUR situation, your life, not of something that is beyond your control. Use your talent, your wisdom to teach, to help, not to condemn. This rant only shows to others just how petty and small you can be in your reasoning. Instead, take the higher road, rise above your bitterness and MAKE a positive, productive goal for yourself and the ones you care about. Why is this post anonymous? Because I don't have a LJ. My occupation is CISW, a certified independent social worker, and I surf LJ's to get a touch on other peoples lives. No, I do not post to other LJ's, but this I had to comment on. Please think about what I said. It is not made to ridicule or demean, rather to let you look into yourself and ask, do I like what I see? It is a question that only you can do. Take care and my peace be with you. Amanda Baker

Re: Lone Rant

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Debbie is my role model and even she loses her temper sometimes.

I spouted the ugliness so I wouldn't have to carry it around. I vented so it could be gone and my head could be clear and I could write again. Sheesh, one temper-tantrum and I'm a bad person.

The way everyone is reacting, you'd think my curses had actual power.

Read the next post for ways I am planning to take control.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty angry too, and conventional wisdom has it that anger is one of the necessary steps in healing, moving on, and continuing the fight. I wouldn't have come up with such an elaborate and specific curse, but I can't blame you for wanting to curse. Besides, last time I checked, cursing people was not considered a reliable method of causing actual harm, unless there are a wackload of peer-reviewed studies I haven't heard about.

And you make a good point amidst all the inventive and highly descriptive curses: that this vote is going to backfire massively on the people who made this choice. It's not only liberals whose kids will get blown up in Iraq, or who will lose their jobs/Social Security/homes/free decent K-12 education/health insurance/ability to speak their opinions without fear of Homeland Security on the doorstep. It's not only liberal women who will be battered by their husbands, or get raped, or discover they have cancer during a pregnancy and not be given the option of choosing their own life over that of a fetus which may or may not survive.

There was a woman in Salt Lake City a few months ago whose fetus died in utero during her second trimester. Her doctors were so paranoid of being jailed for violating the ban on 'partial-birth' abortions that she had an incredibly hard time getting someone to give her a D&C, even though it was already dead. Religious married Utah woman, five kids already, wanted pregnancy, forced to carry a dead fetus in her womb, running the risk of decomposing tissue making her gravely ill, having to phone around the state for a doctor who wasn't so scared silly of Ashcroft as to forget the Hippocratic oath. Given the political makeup of Utah, and the descriptions of this woman's life, chances are she was a registered Republican before this. I hope like hell she didn't vote for Bush yesterday.

How many people are going to need to have terrible things happen to them before they wake up and realize that they're endangering themselves by voting for these neo-fascists?

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

P.S. You're not the only one raining down curses, although at least you're being more specific in targeting Bush voters rather than just America. http://www.livejournal.com/users/just_eunice/109685.html

[cimadness.livejournal.com]

There was a woman in Salt Lake City a few months ago whose fetus died in utero during her second trimester. Her doctors were so paranoid of being jailed for violating the ban on 'partial-birth' abortions that she had an incredibly hard time getting someone to give her a D&C, even though it was already dead. Religious married Utah woman, five kids already, wanted pregnancy, forced to carry a dead fetus in her womb, running the risk of decomposing tissue making her gravely ill, having to phone around the state for a doctor who wasn't so scared silly of Ashcroft as to forget the Hippocratic oath. Given the political makeup of Utah, and the descriptions of this woman's life, chances are she was a registered Republican before this. I hope like hell she didn't vote for Bush yesterday.
See, to me, this sounds less like a problem with right-wing policies than a problem with people being stupid.

[gsyh.livejournal.com]

But the policies helped.

Remeber what sparked the Rewanada genocide, radio hosts who preached hate and murder, and boardcast locations of fleeing victims.

[serenaluvsron.livejournal.com]

am i the only person here that totally sees what she's talking about??

She makes perfect sense

[gsyh.livejournal.com]

You said all the things I was trying not to think and didn't say.

I still don't believe in sins of the parents, it was one of the questions I raised back at Baptist sunday school. Why did the first borns of Egypt did to deserve death?

I still think it though. Just won't let it get beyond my head.